A new ‘funding accelerator’ programme has been launched in Scotland to help startups secure early stage investment.
The initiative is designed to give founders a competitive edge in a challenging market, with recent figures showing an 18 per cent reduction in funding for UK startups in the first quarter of this year.
Forbes recently reported that investors are becoming particularly risk averse when it comes to late stage investment, pointing to a falling number of companies going from seed funding rounds to Series A, which may be a sign of reduced confidence in their commercial prospects.
The Funding Accelerator will be delivered over three months by CodeBase-run Techscaler in partnership with Focused for Business, and is designed for startups looking to raise their first or second rounds of equity investment, in the £100,000 to £1 million range.
Lauren Wilson, scaleup programme manager at CodeBase, said: “Scotland’s tech startup scene is going from strength to strength, but getting early-stage funding can feel like a major uphill battle. It is also time consuming and can take founders away from running the business. So, we want to give them the knowledge, tools and networks to navigate the investor community, with a view to giving them the best chance of success.”
Founders and executives on the pilot programme will be exposed to areas including valuation and financial planning, investor engagement, pitching, building ‘data rooms’ for investors, maximising advisory services, through to negotiating and closing deals.
The first Funding Accelerator cohort numbers 10 startups – Seeker, 20 Photos, PracTest, Rethink Carbon, RAVEN, beEmbedded, Nursery Story, Tax Torch, Afterword, and Unbaggaged – and started earlier this month, running until February next year.
Zoe Russell, co-founder and chief operating officer at Aviemore-based Rethink Carbon, a startup that has developed a technology platform to maximise sustainable land management, said: “As a startup planning to raise investment, Funding Accelerator ticks a lot of boxes for us – specifically the focus on financial forecasting, investor outreach, and understating valuations. We also love the collaborative working environment with other founders and their insights. By the end of the programme, our goal is to finalise a terms sheet with investors.”